Mowgli - Legend of the Jungle (movie 2018): Just a Hyena
by Castiel-Fan
Summary: Here is my (pretty short) tribute to one of my most favorite jungle book characters: Tabaqui. Please enjoy :)


_**First things first.  
I DON'T OWN MOWGLI - LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE!  
ALL RIGHTS BELONGS TO THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS OF THE MOVIE!**_

 _ _I don't even know if anyone will read this, or if there is a fandom for this movie at all.  
I doubt it, but I don't care.__

 _Anyway, I am SO in LOVE with this new jungle book movie. I have never seen a more perfect jungle book movie as this one.  
It is dark, it is brutal, there are no singing animals, no fluffy balloo, fooling around with mowgli, NONE of this and this is awesome!  
Disney? Look at this, because THIS is how it should have been made from the beginning on! THIS is the TRUE jungle book!  
_

 _It is such a shame that this stunning movie never made it onto the big screen, for I would have loved to watch it in cinema!_

 _And finally one of my most favorite jungle book characters, Tabaqui, got some screentime and he was a striped hyena. THANK YOU!  
I LOVE striped hyenas so, so, sooooooo much. _

_Here is a little tribute for Tabaqui and I hope ya'll like it.  
It's a very short story, but this is intentional ;)_

 _I hope you like it and again sorry for grammer/spelling mistakes; english isn't my first language and I had to translate this from german into english.  
_

 _ **And i would appreciate feedback in the form of a comment very much.  
Please don't be shy and share your thoughts with me. I won't bite you.  
And besides: Comments keep my motivation up to write and upload my stuff^^**_

* * *

 **Just a hyena...**

Silently and secretly, a dark shadow moves through the jungle.

Silently, paws sneak through the branches, scare away insects and smaller reptiles here and there.

His ears move forward, his nose absorbs the various smells of the forest and he listens to every little sound around him.

He is not hunting, because he is too clumsy for that.

No.

Like every day of his life, he is just happy that he does not become hunted himself.

His master, the great tiger, Shere Khan, is not by his side tonight to protect him. He has set out to kill a defenseless animal and he certainly doesn't want to be disturbed when he is out, hunting. Especially not when he eats his prey after he has killed it...

Tabaqui knows, like everyone else, that he better not get in the way of the tiger. Especially not when he has just killed fresh prey and wants to eat it. A single powerful blow with his claws would suffice to kill him, so Tabaqui had decided to go looking for food this evening all alone. It would not be fresh prey, for he was not trained in hunting. Of course he had tried it, but always he had failed, which made him the laughing stock of the jungle. Everyone laughed at him. And some days he thought he heard even the insects to his feet laugh at him. But that could also have been his imagination...

In the end, he didn't care.

Their mocking words didn't hurt him anymore, because he had long since become accustomed to his fate.

He didn't have a pack by his side, which hunted with him, protected him and comforted him when he needed it. Just as Akkela and his wolves did…

He wasn't tall and powerful, as the elephants were who stomped through the jungle, with their heads proudly raised and which were respected by all the others.

Nor was he like Kaa, the wise snake, who was told she could even predict the future.

And he was certainly not like a tiger.

Strong, powerful, brutal and above all: terrifying!

Shere Khan was no ordinary tiger. He was so eaten away by his hatred, that his sheer brutality was already evident on his face, which had been scarred by his previous battles with other tigers. He was the strongest, the meanest and the most brutal tiger in the jungle and hardly anyone dared to mess with him. Only in front of Kaa and the elephants, Shere Khan had respect.

He could easily intimidate the wolves and even Balloo, the bear or Baghira, the panther were no threat to him.

They all feared him…and for good reason...

Briefly Tabaqui stopped, sat down and listened to the jungle.

The chirping of crickets touched his ears, his mane rose slightly, as he heard a wolf howl in the distance, which was soon joined by more wolves and told him that Akkela called for an evening hunt, as the sun began to set slowly, plunging the jungle in a fire-red light.

Oh, how much he would like to be a member of a pack or at least have a single friend, but he didn't have one or the other.

He was all alone and he would probably stay all alone forever.

In some nights he dreamed of being as strong and powerful as a tiger.

As strong and powerful and terrifying as Shere Khan was!

But every morning, he woke up again as what he was born to, and one day he would die as such.

And in the end he would remain a lousy scavenger, who was too clumsy to hunt and was ridiculed by everyone else.

In the end, he would just be a worthless, cowardly hyena in all their eyes and nothing more...

 **The end**


End file.
